Category: Study Skills

A study guide can be a great way to get some insight into what your professor might include on an exam. But, the question is: how do you actually use them to study?

The easiest way to use a study guide is as a way to structure your study notes. Generally speaking, these guides should give you some insight into the structure of the exam: will it be multiple choice? Short answer? Essay? Knowing the structure of the exam will help you organize your notes most effectively to study efficiently. So, some key tips and tricks for making the best use of your study guide:

1. If it includes a key terms section, use this to make flash cards, or other memorization tool. In short, do something to rewrite all term definitions out.
2. If it indicates that you will have any kind of free response (essay section), make outlines of information you will need to answer that question/question type. Generally speaking, outlines are easier to study from than written out paragraphs.
3. If it indicates any problem types that you will need to solve, write out the process, including any needed formula. You should do this, even if the study guide includes sample problems for you to practice with.
4. If your study guide is really vague (a “know everything” kind of format), ask your professor to walk you through the structure of the exam. Then, set up your notes according to the exam structure, rather than trying to memorize everything from a particular lesson or unit. (See steps 1-3 above).
5. If your study guide is very very detailed (includes everything from the entirety of the semester), you may want to consider one of the following strategies: (a) typing up notes (faster than handwriting); (b) splitting organizing notes with a trusted peer and filling each other in

A few more key points:

• Never ignore a study guide (if your professor took time to put one together, you should use it.
• If your professor won’t tell you the structure of your exam (note: NOT content, but STRUCTURE) even after being asked, you have a right to be upset—include this on your end of course evaluations.
• Sometimes a professor won’t issue a study guide. This is their prerogative. You aren’t entitled to one. I’ll discuss making your own in a later post (it is possible!). DON’T complain about this on end of course evals. You can—as always—suggest that it would be helpful.
• Always ask your professor to clarify anything that is confusing or unclear about exam expectations. But do not expect them to spoon feed you the answers or content.

A close reading is when you read the text for information, argument, and deeper meaning/details. In short, it’s the exact opposite of skimming. Close reading can be helpful when you are working on an assigned reading that you plan on using later for research, or one that you are planning on discussing in depth in class. There are a number of strategies you can use when doing a “close reading,” and I’ve listed some of the major ones below.

1. Make strategic use of highlighters

Many students have heard the phrase, if you are highlighting everything, you aren’t really highlighting anything. Over highlighting is a common mistake made by students when they try to do a close reading. There are a few ways to over come this problem.

Only highlight what you want to remember as a direct quote. This is the strategy that I use when I highlight my reading. This lets me pull out only the most important pieces of the text.

Use Multiple Colors: This strategy is helpful if there are different aspects of the text your want to remember for different reasons. For example, perhaps you want to identify several different arguments. Or, perhaps you want to highlight main ideas with one color and supporting facts with a second color. Another strategy is to highlight key terms in one color, conceptual ideas in a second, and important formulas with a third. If you use this strategy, the important thing to remember is to leave yourself some kind of key, so that you can easily return to the notes at a later time and understand what your rainbow effect means.

2. Annotate your reading

Annotation is just a fancy word that means take notes in the margins. There are two major things this strategy allows you to accomplish:

Summary of key points: When you annotate, you want to focus on summarizing key pieces of material in your own words. You can do this by writing directly on the document itself, or by using sticky notes. When I read, I do some of both. And, when I am reading a digital copy, I tend to put my summaries into digital sticky notes. The benefit of annotating a document this way is that you will be able to go back and get the gist of the argument (or major points) just by reading your annotations.

Adding your own thoughts/interpretations into your notes. Sometimes, when you read, you are able to connect it back to other things you’ve learned, to other things you’ve read, or you may be able to pass your own judgement on the validity of the argument. All of this counts as annotation as well. The benefit of this kind of annotation is that it allows you to remember the critiques you had of a piece when you review it later. An important key to using this kind of annotation is to keep it separate from any kind of summary annotations you make. Pick a different color pen, a different sticky note, or come up with a symbol (I use a #) to place in front of your own thoughts.

3. Create symbols to put in the margins.

Both highlighting and (especially) annotating are time consuming ways to do a close reading of a text. If you are also dealing with a large reading load, you may not have time to painstakingly write (or type) out your summary thoughts and ideas, and using a highlighter may cause you to over (or under) highlight passages. One way around this dilemma is to create a series of symbols to write into the text that are fast reminders about why a particular section is important. Perhaps you can throw an exclamation point next to a key piece of the argument, a question mark next to data you have an issue with, and draw a line down the side of a paragraph you think is particularly important evidence. You can circle key hypotheses, words, or formulas, and you can place a star next to key diagrams.

One benefit to this method is that it is not only a faster way to make notes while you read, but also lends itself well to marking lightly with pencil in books that you will need to erase at a later date (a text book you wish to sell back, or a library book).

4. Creating an abstract after finishing an article

A final strategy for a close reading is to create a short summary when you are done reading the selection. This method is one I used often in graduate school in order to cut through the large reading loads we were assigned. After I was done reading an article, I would try to summarize the main argument, key evidence and methodology in a few sentences to a short paragraph. For articles, I’d write this on the first page, above the title. When we returned to discuss the article in class, I’d have a quick reminder of the contents right away. For books, I’d summarize each chapter in this fashion. I use this method in conjunction with other strategies, but it is one that I find most helpful when returning to a text after any amount of time (even just two days) have passed. It is especially helpful if you are studying for exams and need to be able to cite readings from a course.

What other strategies do you use to take good notes while you are reading? Share in the comments below.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks I’ve run across in terms of students and selecting research topics for a course paper is that students do not feel like they know enough about the topic to select a topic early on in the course. This feeling is completely understandable! I get it! Many classes are “survey” courses, meant to introduce you to a new set of topics in the first place.

However, on the other side of the coin, research is a skill and an important one to practice in class, it takes time to do well so you can’t just work on it for the last week of the semester, and writing a research paper can help you engage with the class topic in a more in depth way (i.e. you get more out of it).

So how do we fix this problem?

One simple solution is to use the syllabus to help you narrow down your topic selection. The syllabus is going to outline the topics covered in the course and the assigned readings for each day. Peruse the syllabus to find a topic or two that you’ll be covering in the class that you think looks especially interesting. Then, read ahead to figure out if the topic is as interesting as it looks at first blush.

Another solution is to meet with your professor during office hours. Assuming you have a few very broad ideas in mind (if not, return to the previous paragraph), you can visit your professor during office hours to ask for help in narrowing down your topic selection. Some things to think about before stepping into their office: (1) Why did that broad area seem interesting? (2) How does this class relate to your major/career goals? (3) Is there a specific case/event/study that you read that sparked your focus in this direction? Being able to provide a little bit of extra context will help the professor help you narrow down your topic to something that you’ll actually enjoy working on for the remainder of the term.

A few other rules of thumb:

• Don’t pick a topic you hate, or you’ll be in for a long, tough term.
• Pick a topic as early as possible, if you hate it/cannot find enough information/etc. you can more easily switch topics.
• Make sure you transition from a topic into a question about that topic fairly early on. All good research papers should answer a question.

Writing is a necessary and important skill, regardless of what your major is, or what your career is likely to be. Here are 4 simple ways to improve your writing before turning in your next assignment.

1. Know Your Audience

Who is the intended audience for your writing? The answer is not simply–Duh, Dr. B. it’s the professor! Rather, think about the kind of writing assignment you are being asked to complete? Is it a research paper? A business proposal? Maybe it’s a blog post/op-ed or a report. Each of these kinds of assignments have a different intended audience. A research paper is going to be aimed at other people studying that same topic. A business proposal is intended to be read by potential investors. A blog post or op-ed is intended to be read by the general public. A report should be written with a specific person or group of people in mind.

Knowing your audience allows you to consider how to pitch your topic. If you are describing a concept or issue for the general public, you will want to avoid discipline or industry specific jargon. If you are writing for a specific group, you can think about what background information they already know versus what you need to explain to them. Keeping your audience in mind allows your writing to be more focused and more accessible.

2. Keep It Simple!

When writing, particularly about complex ideas, it is easy to get wrapped up in the details and dive into the really meaty sections right away. But that’s a big mistake. When you are describing a complex topic, you want to start by explaining it in the simplest way possible. By attempting to explain a concept/issue in the simplest way possible, you ensure that you get the full picture into the writing piece without missing anything important. Then, add details and more minutia as space (and the audience!) allow.

3. Start with an outline

As anyone who has ever had me in class will tell you, I LOVE outlines. That’s because an outline will help you capture all the main ideas you need to include in your writing and help you figure out in what order they are best presented.

When students attempt to write without an outline, they often end up meandering all over and never really get to the point. The argument can be hard to follow–if you can even find it, and it reads more like a stream of consciousness novel than an accessible piece of writing. The issue with diving right in sans outline is that it is going to make the writing hard to grade, and that’s likely going to cause you to end up with a lower grade!

4. Find a Proof Reader

One of the biggest mistakes students make when it comes to writing assignments is not rereading the paper before turning it in. At minimum, you need to reread your paper yourself. But a better solution is to find someone to read your paper over for you. The reason? When you write a paper, you can accidently miss typos, grammatical errors, or other pesky mistakes because you wrote it. The paper is in your “voice” and your brain inherently knows what you meant to say, even if that’s not what made it onto the page. Getting a second set of eyes to read over your work means you’re less likely to turn in a mistake filled paper. BONUS: proof readers do not have to have any truly special qualities beyond being able to read at a college level and not being you–so go ahead, ask your mom!

Flash cards are 100% old school. They can also 100% work. Here’s how.

When to use them

Flash cards are best used when you have to memorize something. In my how to write good exam answers blog post, I discuss three different types of exam questions: the recall, the argument, and the application. Flash cards work best for exams that have recall questions: these are the right/wrong objective evaluation type questions.

Why to use them

Flash cards can help you in two ways. First, the very act of making the flash cards is a review in an of itself–assuming you are writing out the flash cards by hand. When you physically write out information, you are engaging both your visual and kinesthetic learning areas. Second, reviewing the flash cards, especially if you can answer yourself aloud, also engages two learning centers: your visual and your auditory. In short, flash cards can help you get the information into your brain twice.

How to use them

The most effective way to use flash cards is by drilling. Flipping through them over and over until you know the answer to each prompt. In order to speed up the memorization process, I would recommend filtering out the ones you get right as you go through them so that the ones you are not as clear on get extra face-time. This will cut down on the total amount of time you spend studying. However, it’s always good to end with a final go through of ALL the cards.

Unlike textbooks, academic articles can be hard to read. They are: long, dry, unnecessarily complicated, and sometimes bury the lead. In short, it can be hard to figure out what you are supposed to get out of reading an article for class. This is the first in a series of posts that explores how to successfully tackle the academic articles on your reading list. Each post will cover a few

There are actually several different kinds of articles you might be assigned to read for class. But regardless of what kind of article you are tackling, there are two key steps to reading academic articles:

Step 1: Identify the article type

Identifying the type of article you’re reading can go a long way towards figuring out what your professor wants you to get out the reading assignment. Specifically, knowing the type of article gives you insight into what the author was trying to accomplish by writing the article and in turn, it lets you grab onto the main ideas from the article.

Step 2: Identifying the Key Takeaways

Once you know the goal of the article, you can ask yourself a few key questions about what the author was trying to communicate through the paper. Because each article type has a slightly different goal, you’re going to want to ask slightly different questions for each article type.

In this post, I’ll be going over two of the more common types of articles you’ll find (regardless of your field–physical science, social science, or humanities).

The Research Article

By far the most prevalent type of academic article, the research article is a write up of results from a research project conducted by the author. These types of articles can be identified by their focus on something new: new data, new results, or new application. The goal of a research article is to communicate this new finding to the scholarly community.

To pull out the key information from this kind of article, you’ll want to ask yourself these three questions as you read:

1. What question(s) was the author(s) trying to answer?

2. What did the author(s) argue? (i.e. what was their theory? Or what was their answer to the question?)

Note: often authors will review how other scholars have answered this question in the past–kind of like a critique. Don’t get confused by this. Their answer will usually be pretty obvious through phrasing: “We argue that…” or “This paper suggests that..” etc.

3. How did the author(s) support their argument? What evidence did they use? How did they test their argument to see if they were right?

The Review Article

Review articles are papers that can show you how other scholars answer the same question using different theories (or different answers). These types of articles are great for helping you understand how other scholars agree or disagree. A review article will always present you with two or more sides to an argument and often present themselves as a “state of the discipline” type piece.

To pull out the key information from this kind of article, you’ll want to ask yourself these three questions as you read:

1. What question is the author discussing?

2. How does the author present the different theories (different explanations) by the different authors? How does the author sort the different articles into different groups?

3. What specific theories fit into each section? (Bonus points if you can summarize each of these into one sentence!)

In the next post, I’ll discuss two other types of articles that you’re likely to stumble across: the case study and the book chapter.